Love People, Bring Peace | 105 Mother Teresa Quotes
Mother Teresa or Saint Teresa of Calcutta was born in 1910 in North Macedonia to Albanian parents and spent the majority of her life in India as a nun. Throughout her life, she focused on working with the poorest of the poor, providing them with shelter and education. She founded the Order of the Missionaries of Charity after being called by God to leave her previous work in education to help those who lived in abhorrent conditions. She and her order created homes and provided medical treatment for those with leprosy, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and the elderly.
Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and was officially made a saint in 2016 by the Roman Catholic Church. Today, the order of nuns that she founded operates in over 130 countries and continues Mother Teresa’s mission of caring for those less fortunate. Her words still reverberate all over the world and this collection of quotes by her showcases her life’s contribution.
Table of Contents
- Short Mother Teresa Quotes
- Mother Teresa Quotes on Love
- Inspirational Mother Teresa Quotes
- Mother Teresa Famous Quotes
- Mother Teresa Quotes on Kindness
- Mother Teresa Quotes on Family
- Mother Teresa Quotes on Life
- Mother Teresa’s “Do It Anyway” Poem
Short Mother Teresa Quotes
- Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. Mother Teresa
- Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. Mother Teresa
- It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Mother Teresa
- Everything that is not given is lost. Mother Teresa
- Good works are links that form a chain of love. Mother Teresa
- How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers. Mother Teresa
- I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. Mother Teresa
- Do you want to do something beautiful for God? There is a person who needs you. This is your chance. Mother Teresa
- I want you to be concerned about your next-door neighbor. Do you know your next-door neighbor? Mother Teresa
- One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody. Mother Teresa
- I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much. Mother Teresa
- Never be so busy as not to think of others. Mother Teresa
- One filled with joy preaches without preaching. Mother Teresa
- If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. Mother Teresa
- May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in. Mother Teresa
- Not handouts, but rather hands held. Mother Teresa
- One truly must have suffered oneself to help others. Mother Teresa
- Poverty was not created by God. It is we who have caused it, you and I through our egotism. Mother Teresa
- Your true character is most accurately measured by how you treat those who can do ‘Nothing’ for you. Mother Teresa
- Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts. Mother Teresa
- Profound joy of the heart is like a magnet that indicates the path of life. Mother Teresa
- There’s nothing more calming in difficult moments that knowing there’s someone fighting with you. Mother Teresa
- We must never be afraid to be a sign of contradiction for the world. Mother Teresa
- What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build it anyway. Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa Quotes on Love
- It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love is put in the giving. Mother Teresa
- If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Mother Teresa
- Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people. Mother Teresa
- People are generally irrational, unreasonable and selfish. They deserve to be loved, anyway. Mother Teresa
- Love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand. Mother Teresa
- Jesus said love one another. He didn’t say love the whole world. Mother Teresa
- I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die, and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather he will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did? Mother Teresa
- The less we have, the more we give. Seems absurd, but it’s the logic of love. Mother Teresa
- The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread. Mother Teresa
- I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love. Mother Teresa
- If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive. Mother Teresa
- Intense love does not measure, it just gives. Mother Teresa
- The success of love is in the loving – it is not in the result of loving. Of course, it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done. Mother Teresa
- Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service. Mother Teresa
- True love is giving and giving until it hurts. Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self. Mother Teresa
- Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love. Mother Teresa
- Prayer in action is love, love in action is service. Mother Teresa
- The Lord likes small things best, especially those done with love. Mother Teresa
- We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and compassion. Mother Teresa
- When you know how much God is in love with you then you can only live your life radiating that love. Mother Teresa
Inspirational Mother Teresa Quotes
- There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. Mother Teresa
- I am a little pencil in God’s hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing. He does everything and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and He has to sharpen it a little more. Mother Teresa
- I used to pray for answers, but now I’m praying for strength. I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things. Mother Teresa
- We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls. Mother Teresa
- Do not allow yourselves to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best. Mother Teresa
- I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things. Mother Teresa
- Keep the corners of your mouth turned up. Speak in a low, persuasive tone. Listen; be teachable. Laugh at good stories and learn to tell them…For as long as you are green, you can grow. Mother Teresa
- In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence. Mother Teresa
- Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. Mother Teresa
- God loves me. I’m not here just to fill a place, just to be a number. He has chosen me for a purpose. I know it. Mother Teresa
- If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve. Mother Teresa
- God has not called me to be successful. He has called me to be faithful. Mother Teresa
- Holiness does not consist in doing extraordinary things. It consists in accepting, with a smile, what Jesus sends us. It consists in accepting and following the will of God. Mother Teresa
- Humility is the mother of all virtues; purity, charity and obedience. It is in being humble that our love becomes real, devoted and ardent. If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed, you will not be discouraged. If they call you a saint, you will not put yourself on a pedestal. Mother Teresa
- Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go. Mother Teresa
- Please choose the way of peace. In the short term there may be winners and losers in this war that we all dread. But that never can, or never will justify the suffering, pain and loss of life your weapons will cause. Mother Teresa
- The trees, the flowers, the plants grow in silence. The stars, the sun, the moon move in silence. Silence gives us a new perspective. Mother Teresa
- There is thing you can do but I cannot and there is thing I can, but you cannot; so let us make something beautiful for God. Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa Famous Quotes
- If now we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten how to see God in one another. If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Mother Teresa
- We need to realize that poverty doesn’t only consist of being hungry for bread, but rather it is a tremendous hunger for human dignity. We need to love and to be someone for someone else. Mother Teresa
- Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Mother Teresa
- I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me, and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me. Mother Teresa
- In the developed countries there is a poverty of intimacy, a poverty of spirit, of loneliness, of lack of love. There is no greater sickness in the world today than that one. Mother Teresa
- People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. Mother Teresa
- If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. Mother Teresa
- If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. Mother Teresa
- If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. Mother Teresa
- What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. Mother Teresa
- If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. Mother Teresa
- The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Mother Teresa
- Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. Mother TeresaIn the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. Mother Teresa
- The greatest mistake is to think you are too strong to fall into temptation. Put your finger in the fire and it will burn. So, we have to go through the fire. Mother Teresa
- The poor give us much more than we give them. They’re such strong people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain. We don’t have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them. Mother Teresa
- There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use. Mother Teresa
- We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something. Mother Teresa
- We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing. Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa Quotes on Kindness
- I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness. Mother Teresa
- Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. Mother Teresa
- Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier. Mother Teresa
- Be kind in your actions. Do not think that you are the only one who can do efficient work, work worth showing. This makes you harsh in your judgment of others who may not have the same talents. Do your best and trust that others do their best. And be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Mother Teresa
- Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. Mother Teresa
- Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. Mother Teresa
- Peace begins with a smile. Mother Teresa
- Smile at each other. Smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other- it doesn’t matter who it is- and that will help to grow up in greater love for each other. Mother Teresa
- We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do. Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa Quotes on Family
- What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. Mother Theresa
- The openness of our hearts and minds can be measured by how wide we draw the circle of what we call family. Mother Theresa
- We must make our homes centers of compassion and forgive endlessly. Mother Theresa
- Do we know our poor people? Do we know the poor in our house, in our family? Perhaps they are not hungry for a piece of bread. Perhaps our children, husband, wife, are not hungry, or naked, or dispossessed, but are you sure there is no one there who feels unwanted, deprived of affection? Mother Theresa
- In the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world. Mother Theresa
- It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start. Mother Theresa
- Let us make one point, that we meet each other with a smile, when it is difficult to smile. Smile at each other, make time for each other in your family. Mother Theresa
Mother Teresa Quotes on Life
- Live simply so others may simply live. Mother Teresa
- A life not lived for others is not a life. Mother Teresa
- There is no key to happiness; the door is always open. Mother Teresa
- Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Mother Teresa
- … Life is love, enjoy it. Life is mystery, know it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. … Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is Life, fight for it! Mother Teresa
- Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons. Mother Teresa
- Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. Ironically, rush and more usually mean less. Mother Teresa
- Yes, you must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world that makes gods out of power, riches and pleasure make you to forget that you have been created for greater things. Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa’s “Do It Anyway” Poem
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
You May Also Like
103 Mahatma Gandhi Quotes about Nonviolence, Truth and Love
A Universe of Compassion | 123 Dalai Lama Quotes